Illegal armed men not detained on ethnic lines: Govt

KABUL (Pajhwok): The government on Tuesday said detention of illegal armed group commanders followed people’s complaints and the move has no tribal or political motive.

Shah Hussain Murtazavi, deputy spokesman to the president, told a press conference here that no political or ethnical aim was behind the detention of irresponsible armed men.

“For the first time, Afghan forces detained Rahimullah from Uruzgan province, Daud Mubariz from Farah province and Nizamuddin Qaisari from Faryab province, these detentions have no political, ethnical and regional links, we hope our citizens understand this,” he said.

He said some of the detainees were arrested after people’s complaints. Rahimullah was arrested for his involvement in handing over 50 security posts to Taliban in Uruzgan and Mubariz was arrested for leaving Purchaman district to the Taliban, he added.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) recently said it captured Nizamuddin Qaisari, the commander of illegal armed group in Faryab, Mubariz who sold weapons and security posts to Taliban in Farah, Rahimullah, an illegal commander in Uruzgan province and Nader Shah, a smuggler of precious stones and drugs in Badakhshan.

Murtazavi said: “Detention of such figures is people’s demand and we did it for ensuring security of public, anyone who harasses people or violates the law will face the same government’s reaction.”

He said staging protests was the right of people but he asked the public not to damage government’s facilities because they also belonged to the people.

More than $700 million was embezzled in the country’s customs and the money went to the pockets of strongmen and influential figures in customs, Murtazavi added.

“Our revenue is currently $2.2 billion while the expenses of Afghan security forces are $5 billion, we are trying to increase our revenue by $8 billion, we will definitely face problems achieving this goal but the government in the long term can increase its revenue and maintain the Afghan forces and civil services expenses,” he said.

Murtazavi said the president last week met with heads of customs and discussed with them how to prevent revenue embezzlement particularly in the customs.